Main navigation

Math Lessons Using Minecraft – Problem Solving

Hi! My name is Amy and I am the teacher behind Teaching in Blue Jeans. As a classroom teacher and mom of a child with learning disabilities, finding a way to reach optimal engagement in learning is key. So what better way to engage your children and students than to take their learning to something they love – Minecraft! I believe 100 percent in making learning fun and connecting learning to the real world. OK – Minecraft isn’t the real world, but to many kids Minecraft is a big part of their world.

So what do Minecraft and math have to do with each other? Well, there are many different ways that you can use Minecraft in your math lessons. Here are some examples to show you how I used Minecraft for math learning.

Minecraft Based Problem Solving

Create problems using Minecraft subject matters. Then let your student use Minecraft to figure out how to solve the problems.

To put this into action, I wrote the problem out ahead of time on an index card. This was quick and simple! I easily could have used a problem from my son’s math book too – although the topic might not be available on Minecraft. In that case we would talk about how he could “make it work” using Minecraft.

Here’s the problem that I gave my son:

The sheep are wandering in the field and need a pen. Build a pen that has a perimeter of 24. After you create the pen put 2×3 sheep in the pen. I love that one problem can address multiple math skills!

Here’s his solution:

The bird’s eye view in Minecraft makes it super easy for me to check my son’s work. I also love how next to the gate there is one section of fence that is cut in half. Just another math skill that he has to put into practice!

Ready to take the first step and “rock” your child’s world? Go ask them to teach you how to play Minecraft!